OERcamp.global 2021

It was a milestone in history when the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER) was unanimously adopted by the UNESCO General Conference in November 2019. This Recommendation is the only existing international standard-setting instrument at OER and is the result of more than a decade of efforts to bring together a wide range of stakeholders. The Recommendation outlines five action areas, namely: 1. building stakeholder capacity for the creation, access, reuse, adaptation and sharing of OER; 2. developing supportive policies for OER; 3. promoting inclusive and equitable quality OER; 4. promoting the creation of sustainability models for OER; and 5. promoting and strengthening international cooperation on OER, and including monitoring and evaluation. At the international level, the adoption of the Recommendation represents a crucial step towards building a more open and inclusive knowledge society and achieving the 2030 Agenda UN. Indeed, the implementation of the Recommendation will contribute to the achievement of at least six Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely SDG 4 (Quality education), SDG 5 (Gender equality), SDG 9 (Industry, innovation and infrastructure), SDG 10 (Reduce inequalities within and between countries), SDG 16 (Peace, justice and strong institutions) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).

Education needs to be redefined as a public good and a collective global responsibility. Now is the time for public deliberation and democratic accountability. Decisions made today will determine our success in transitioning to a greener, more inclusive and resilient future, charting a path that enables all to face the future with confidence. The choices must be based on a humanistic vision of education.

This session will take the stand of current global initiatives on the futures of education in the context of equity, social justice and human rights and focus on how education and learning need to be forward-looking and different to achieve well-being and empathy for individuals and society and build on an ecosystem that embraces resilience and sustainability with a new social contract for learning across the lifespan. In addition, two ICDE initiatives in particular will be presented The European Network for Catalyzing Open Resources in Education (ENCORE +), which responds to the European priorities of opening up and modernizing education and training by creating a network that supports innovation and entrepreneurship with OER. The other initiative concerns exploiting the opportunities offered by the OER recommendation, for which the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (MESRI) and the ICDE set up a Francophone expert working group OER in early 2020. It was created to tap into the global ICDE expert network OER and to support Francophone African and French partners and stakeholders in implementing the UNESCO OER Recommendation on a regional basis.